The GaelMinnn Gazette: October, 2015
THE GAELMINN GAZETTE (#124): October, 2015
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The GaelMinn Gazette, a monthly e-newsletter from Gaeltacht Minnesota, carries helpful items for anyone studying the Irish language, anywhere, as well as news of interest to local and regional students.
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Content (C) 2015 Gaeltacht Minnesota
CONTENTS
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Tips, Tools, & Tricks
---What's This "Cuid" Thing?
GaelMinn News & Announcements
Lessons Learned
---Of Goals And Priorities
About Gaeltacht Minnesota
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TIPS, TOOLS, & TRICKS
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----------WHAT'S THIS "CUID" THING?
As you read and listen to Irish more and more, sooner or later you'll become aware of this funny word "cuid". You might encounter phrases like:
cuid den am
a chuid Gaeilge
a cuid bróg
an chuid eile den ghrúpa
cuid acu
You look up "cuid" in your dictionary and find that it means "share" or "portion". And that leaves you confused.
It DOES help with some of those phrases. It is easy to see how "cuid den am" might mean "a portion of the time". That is, if you were stuck in the airport and spent some of that waiting time reading a book, you might say, "Chaith mé cuid den am ag léamh", "I spent some of the time reading."
Similarly, for "an chuid eile den ghrúpa", you might come up with "the other share of the group" and translate that more smoothly as "the rest of the group".
But, a chuid Gaeilge? A cuid bróg? What's that about? Your dictionary doesn't give you much help with that, and many textbooks and other references don't really deal with this topic much.
A TALE OF TWO CUIDS
I think the simplest approach is to think of cuid as two separate words, used in different ways:
1. cuid as "share, portion", just as it says in the dictionary
2. cuid as a grammatical device.
Now, we have already touched on the first use of cuid above, and this usage is fairly straightforward. Cuid is feminine, so a "big portion" would be "cuid mhór", and the article lenites in phrases like "an chuid eile den scéal", "the rest of the story".
Cuid is often used with de to express "part of", as in "cuid den am", "some of the time", or "an chuid is mó den phobal", "most (the biggest share) of the community". We could simply refer to "an chuid is lú de", 'the smallest portion of it".
The main wrinkle here is that cuid is also used with ag to express shares of a plural, as in, "of us", "of them". "Bhí an chuid is mó againn míshásta leis an gclár," "Most of us were dissatisfied with the program." Or, "Where are the rest of them?" "Cá bhfuil an chuid eile acu?"
But those are small points, and as you see cuid used in the "portion" sense more and more, you'll easily get the hang of it.
CUID AS GRAMMAR
The more confusing use of "cuid' is in statements like these:
"Tá a cuid Gaeilge go hiontach!" "Her Irish is excellent!"
"Tá mo chuid bróg sa seomra codlata." "My shoes are in the bedroom."
Why don't we just say, "a Gaeilge" and "mo bhróga"?
Some texts and teachers try to provide a rational link between this use and the earlier one. They explain that "your shoes" are just a portion of all the shoes in the universe. Similarly, the Gaeilge you use is just part of the larger language around the world.
Frankly, I have a hard time making this explanation work. I think it is simpler to think of this use of cuid as a simple grammatical rule. In other words, instead of rationalizing this use of cuid as an extension of the simpler "portion" meaning, just say to yourself:
When I use a possessive adjective in front of a plural ("shoes") or mass ("Irish") noun, I'll insert cuid after the possessive.
Note that cuid is then mutated (or not) appropriately for the possessive -- a cuid or a chuid or a gcuid, say. And now you have two nouns together, cuid and the thing possessed, so the latter can be rendered in the genitive. Mass nouns ("Gaeilge") may not have a plural, but nouns like "shoe" would end up in the plural genitive, that is, "her shoes"= "a cuid bróg" rather than "bróga". (But I wouldn't worry too much about that, as I suspect plenty of speakers cheat about using the genitive in this situation.)
Again, apply whatever reasoning that helps you, but it is fine if you just accept this as how the language works without trying to make sense of it.
TWO EXCEPTIONS
There are always exceptions to our grammar rules, it seems, but in this case, they are easy to handle.
We don't insert the cuid when we're talking about things like body parts. "My feet" = mo chosa, NOT mo chuid cos, and the same goes for eyes and hands and so on (although some speakers may use cuid with gruaig, that's an option).
We also are not as likely to use cuid with relatives. Again, "my daughters" are likely to be labeled as "m'iníonacha" rather than as "mo chuid iníonacha".
So there you have it, the basics of cuid. It is an odd, somewhat mysterious word, at least in these possessive + plural/mass noun usage ... mysterious, but not all that difficult.
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GAELTACHT MINNESOTA NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
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----------SCOTS GAELIC CLASS IN NOVEMBER
Gaeltacht Minnesota will offer an Overview of Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig, in four one-hour classes starting November 2.
On-line registration through St. Paul Community Education is now open. For more information, and a link to registration, visit our Community Ed page: http://www.gaelminn.org/commed/ .
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LESSONS LEARNED
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----------OF GOALS AND PRIORITIES
What are your goals for learning Irish? What has to happen for you to consider yourself successful in your studies?
Many serious students would think -- although they might not say it -- "I would like to be fluent." And that's a pretty lofty goal, one that might not be practical for many students.
More to the point, what does "fluent" mean to you? Is it effortless understanding of what you hear, and easy production of spoken Irish? Does that spoken Irish not only have to have the right words and correct grammar, but be perfectly pronounced as well? And does it include the ability to read just about anything written in Irish, not to mention to be able to write in Irish very comfortably?
Tall order, no? But at least, breaking down what constitutes "fluency" like that highlights the variety of areas in which you can make progress.
And to set some objectives against which you can measure your progress, it not only makes sense to look at these various abilities, but to set some priorities.
For example, you certainly want to pronounce Irish consistently enough to be easily understood by other Irish speakers. But does it need to be perfect?
Sure, you may decide to set a very high standard for pronunciation. But, given that most of us are adults studying the language in hard-to-find spare time, is it better to have great pronunciation or a great vocabulary and good grammar? After all, you often speak to people who have learned English as a second language, as you can tell from their accents. But as long as you can make out the words, you are much more interested in WHAT they are saying than you are in HOW they say it!
In short, you and your classmate or study buddy might have different priorities. For one, it may be important to achieve a high level of accurate pronunciation. For the other, good pronunciation may be enough, as that person focuses on other areas to bring to a high standard.
For another example, consider reading ability. Some students may really want to cover a lot of literature, past and recent works as well as on-line material, perhaps. If that's where they get the greatest enjoyment from the language, maybe it makes sense to neglect production -- speech and writing -- a little bit, and concentrate on understanding written material better, through a large vocabulary and a high command of grammatical structures.
I'm not suggesting for a moment that you shouldn't develop a well-rounded command of the language: reading well, writing efficiently, understanding and producing speech, good vocabulary, good grammar, good pronunciation.
I'm just suggesting you should think about what you want to do with the language and consider the possibility that you will concentrate on some abilities more than others. If you love listening to Irish language media, don't feel guilty if that takes more than its share of your study and practice time. Don't assume the "well-rounded" model is the only one that makes sense, that every student has to distribute effort in the same amounts into the same "buckets" of learning.
And remember, goals can change along the way. When you're a beginner, taking a well-rounded approach is a good idea.
But as you accumulate more and more experience with the language, you may get a clearer view of the opportunities you will have to use it. More importantly, you may get a better feel for what kinds of language uses you most enjoy.
At that point, don't feel bad about concentrating on what you like most. Don't assume that all students should focus on the same things. The truth is, the more time you can spend in building the skills you need most for the activities you enjoy most, the more time you'll spend working on your Irish ... with the result that even those "neglected areas" will improve.
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ABOUT GAELTACHT MINNESOTA & THE GAZETTE
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Gaeltacht Minnesota is a volunteer organization that has been teaching free weekly classes in Irish for more than three decades. Besides free classes, we offer several workshops each year, publish introducing the language to readers of columns in regional publications, and participate in a wide variety of community events.
The GaelMinn Gazette is distributed to our subscriber list on the 25th of each month: Will Kenny, editor.
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